Technology remains both an issue of promise and frustration foragents and brokers. That point was apparent at recent meetings ofretail agents in Washington, D.C., and wholesale brokers in Maui,Hawaii.

During his address to agents during the April meeting of theIndependent Insurance Agents & Brokers of America inWashington, D.C., association President William G. Stiglitz IIIcalled on companies to resolve the dilemma agents face over findingeffective rating engines that can deliver real-time quotes.

At one time agents relied on rating manuals from individualcarriers to obtain a quote, but now they must work with keyboards,visiting individual carrier Web sites to obtain quotes, he said.This is an inefficient system that runs counter to the promisetechnology offers, he suggested.

"If we are not able to do competitive rating, then we have takena giant step backward," said Mr. Stiglitz.

During the IIABA meeting, a new rating system, still in the betatesting stage, was being offered as a unique bridge between agencymanagement systems and online company forms, with the potential toaccommodate company proprietary Web sites quickly and easily.

Lincoln, Neb.-based Allied Strategy unveiled its SEMCATtechnology with the promise of offering an efficient and radicallydifferent approach to achieving single-entry, multiple-companyinterface (SEMCI) technology.

Colby Thomson, an executive officer with the company,demonstrated SEMCAT (Single Entry Multiple Company AssistanceTool). The system downloads the information stored in an agencymanagement system onto an online company form. The agent can thenreview the form and, through color-coded sections, fill in anymissing information the company requires to complete the submissionand obtain a quote.

Mr. Thomson said the system currently supports about 40 companyproprietary Web sites of national carriers and aims to support amuch broader number of companies, both national and regional, withreal-time rating. With this technology, he said, the time for anagent to get a quote would be cut by more than half.

He added that with SEMCAT, an agency would have access to allits appointed carriers, either through the already approved list,or via connections the software would make once the agentcontracted the service. Ultimately, the service will be availablefor both personal and commercial lines insurance.

The technology should be launched nationally sometime in thefall, Mr. Thomson said. The current pricing model is $44 a monthper agent, but that scale is still subject to modification. Planscall for the first month of service to be free once it goespublic.

Mr. Thomson noted that the response to SEMCAT from agencymanagement vendors has ranged from support to rejection, as somesee this as a threat to their own systems.

Additional information on the product is available at SEMCAT.netor AlliedStrategy.com.

Meanwhile, for the wholesale agents and brokers attending thisyear's annual meeting in early May of the American Association ofManaging General Agents in Maui, the technology offerings spoke tothe more complex needs of wholesale brokers who, as MGAs, act asthe underwriter for carriers.

Wendy Gibson, chief operating officer, and Tom Mant, salesdirector for Frisco, Texas-based Skywire Software, explained thattheir suite of technology solutions is dedicated to the MGA andexcess & surplus lines brokers.

Skywire offers the combination of Policyware, an agencymanagement system, and InsBridge, an online rating solution.

The company executives explained that the InsBridge tool allowsthe business manager to load the carrier's underwriting criteriafiled with the individual state insurance departments into thesystem. This then allows the broker or MGA to perform theunderwriting work necessary to issue a bindable quote to theclient.

According to the company, the advantage of Policyware is that itintegrates with InsBridge and allows information imputed by aservice representative to then be directly transmitted forrating.

Additional information is available atwww.skywiresoftware.com.